Before the first presidential debate, we outlined five things that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney needed to accomplish at the encounter in Denver. Here’s a quick report card grading their efforts:

MITT ROMNEY

1. Just win, baby!
When you are trailing in the polls, a presidential candidate needs to do something to change the electoral dynamics. Romney took the offensive from the beginning of the debate, seemed comfortably and in command of facts.

Grade: A

2. Sound presidential
Debates gave both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton a chance to increase their stature by appearing presidential while standing next to a troubled incumbent. Romney definitely looked like the equal of Obama on the stage at Magness Arena.

Grade: A

3. The real “Etch-a-Sketch” moment
No candidate with unfavorable ratings as high as Romney’s has been elected president. With the largest audience of the campaign, the presidential debates are the Republican challenger’s best chance to alter public perceptions of him. Romney didn’t come across as warm and cuddly, but he did demonstrate numerous times that he has some sense of “the middle-class squeeze” that has gone on during the Obama years.

Grade: C

4. Bring on the specifics
Romney has intentionally been scant with policy specifics for the campaign on issues ranging from tax cuts to Afghanistan policy, allowing Team Obama to define him as an out-of-touch rich guy whose policies would benefit people like him. At the Denver debate, Romney didn’t offer specifics for his tax plan, his Medicare changes or his spending cuts, but he did offer at least a detailed outline of his priorities.

Grade: C

5. No mistakes.
The Romney campaign needs a disciplined message for the final five weeks of the campaign and can’t afford any more distractions. Wednesday night, the candidate didn’t make any major mistake that will hijack his campaign.

Grade: A

BARACK OBAMA

1. Avoid a catastrophic mistake
When you have a big advantage in the Electoral College, your biggest fear is a huge gaffe that changes the way people think about you. (Remember President Gerald Ford’s disastrous comment about Eastern Europe being free from Soviet domination?) The president didn’t make a catastrophic mistake. But he made a bunch of little ones that opened the door to a Romney renewal.

Grade: C

2. Focus on the future and avoid the blame game
Polls show that voters don’t blame Obama for our current economic problems, but they want to hear solutions rather than re-litigating the causes of the Great Recession. Still, Obama spent more time talking about how he had inherited the worst economy than the Great Recession than discussing his plans for the future (which he finally got to in his closing statement).

Grade: D

3. Be nice (and respectful) to Mitt
Obama has been accused of arrogance by his critics. No such behavior was evident in Denver. The two men disagreed often, but they disagreed cheerfully.

Grade: A

4. Avoid sounding like a professor
Even Obama’s closest associates say he has a habit of talking too long and not getting to the point. During the debate, the president spent four more minutes talking. But Romney made more points.

Grade: D

5. Reach out to disaffected 2008 supporters
Romney’s best chance to win the 2012 election is to attract a small group of 2008 Obama backers who still like the president but don’t think he’s been an effective leader. Obama did very little in a positive way to speak to voters in the middle — other than criticizing Romney.